- Joined
- Jul 1, 2024
- Messages
- 83
- Likes
- 210
- Portables
- 3
Hello everyone!
It took me a while to decide if I was really going to participate in this year's Summer Building Competition, because I was unsure about which project I wanted to build that would actually be interesting and challenging. Among the ideas I considered were a portable using a TV Box, a Raspberry Pi, a Wii, a PS2, and several others. However, none of them got me excited or gave me the same feeling of fear and excitement that I had last year. My adrenaline went through the roof when I remembered the first time I saw a portable Xbox 360.
When I joined the BitBuilt community, the project that really impressed me was Millomaker's work on Xbox 360 miniaturization and his custom regulators. Back then, I read through his worklog more than five times and watched almost all of his videos lol, trying to understand how everything worked and hoping that one day I could build something similar. Even before starting my PS3 portable project, the Xbox 360 was already something that fascinated me.
Seeing such a complex console being reduced and transformed into a portable system seemed almost impossible, but that's exactly what caught my attention. For a long time, I studied the possibilities, but most solutions relied on custom PCBs, specific regulators, and components that were difficult to obtain where I live, making the project impossible for me at that time.
Recently, after discovering the work of a YouTuber named Victor Sánchez and his approach to reducing the motherboard size by cutting it in specific locations where no critical components are present and then reconnecting both halves (following a concept similar to what has been done with graphics cards), I realized that there was finally a viable path to turn this old dream into reality.
The goal of this project is to build a portable Xbox 360 using original hardware, focusing on reducing the motherboard size through physical division and reorganization while keeping the console fully functional. Below is a comparison between a portable PS2 that I built some time ago and the Xbox 360 motherboard. I believe the final size will be quite reasonable.
Besides the build itself, I intend to document the entire process, including the challenges, tests, mistakes, successes, and lessons learned throughout the development.
Main Goals
• Build a fully functional portable Xbox 360.
• Implement motherboard reduction and reorganization.
• Develop an efficient cooling system.
• Integrate a display.
• Integrate controls.
• Implement an internal power system.
• Develop a case using Frankencasing techniques.
Stretch Goals
• Create a clean and organized internal layout.
• Support external controllers.
• Implement battery monitoring .
• Reasonable battery life.
Current Status
I recently got a working board at an affordable price. I unlocked it with RGH 3.0, installed Aurora, and transferred a few games to a 250 GB Kingston SSD. After confirming that everything worked as planned, I’ve already marked the line where I’ll make the cut. You’ll also notice that I relocated some components (I was running some tests). I also replaced a large doubler coil with smaller ones since they have a smaller profile. The old one took up space that I’ll need in the future.
I also managed to get some dead boards for research and testing. Since the Xbox 360 motherboard has four layers and one of the internal layers is primarily dedicated to ground, I only need to fully reconnect one of the internal layers. To better understand the internal routing, I sanded down one of the dead boards to identify the internal traces, as shown below.
I also got a good deal on two controllers: one third-party controller that will be used for the project and one original controller.
More updates coming soon.
Good luck to all participants!
It took me a while to decide if I was really going to participate in this year's Summer Building Competition, because I was unsure about which project I wanted to build that would actually be interesting and challenging. Among the ideas I considered were a portable using a TV Box, a Raspberry Pi, a Wii, a PS2, and several others. However, none of them got me excited or gave me the same feeling of fear and excitement that I had last year. My adrenaline went through the roof when I remembered the first time I saw a portable Xbox 360.
When I joined the BitBuilt community, the project that really impressed me was Millomaker's work on Xbox 360 miniaturization and his custom regulators. Back then, I read through his worklog more than five times and watched almost all of his videos lol, trying to understand how everything worked and hoping that one day I could build something similar. Even before starting my PS3 portable project, the Xbox 360 was already something that fascinated me.
Seeing such a complex console being reduced and transformed into a portable system seemed almost impossible, but that's exactly what caught my attention. For a long time, I studied the possibilities, but most solutions relied on custom PCBs, specific regulators, and components that were difficult to obtain where I live, making the project impossible for me at that time.
Recently, after discovering the work of a YouTuber named Victor Sánchez and his approach to reducing the motherboard size by cutting it in specific locations where no critical components are present and then reconnecting both halves (following a concept similar to what has been done with graphics cards), I realized that there was finally a viable path to turn this old dream into reality.
The goal of this project is to build a portable Xbox 360 using original hardware, focusing on reducing the motherboard size through physical division and reorganization while keeping the console fully functional. Below is a comparison between a portable PS2 that I built some time ago and the Xbox 360 motherboard. I believe the final size will be quite reasonable.
Besides the build itself, I intend to document the entire process, including the challenges, tests, mistakes, successes, and lessons learned throughout the development.
Main Goals
• Build a fully functional portable Xbox 360.
• Implement motherboard reduction and reorganization.
• Develop an efficient cooling system.
• Integrate a display.
• Integrate controls.
• Implement an internal power system.
• Develop a case using Frankencasing techniques.
Stretch Goals
• Create a clean and organized internal layout.
• Support external controllers.
• Implement battery monitoring .
• Reasonable battery life.
Current Status
I recently got a working board at an affordable price. I unlocked it with RGH 3.0, installed Aurora, and transferred a few games to a 250 GB Kingston SSD. After confirming that everything worked as planned, I’ve already marked the line where I’ll make the cut. You’ll also notice that I relocated some components (I was running some tests). I also replaced a large doubler coil with smaller ones since they have a smaller profile. The old one took up space that I’ll need in the future.
I also managed to get some dead boards for research and testing. Since the Xbox 360 motherboard has four layers and one of the internal layers is primarily dedicated to ground, I only need to fully reconnect one of the internal layers. To better understand the internal routing, I sanded down one of the dead boards to identify the internal traces, as shown below.
I also got a good deal on two controllers: one third-party controller that will be used for the project and one original controller.
More updates coming soon.
Good luck to all participants!
Attachments
Last edited:
and can't wait to see if this works. Best of luck ^^
